Chitalpa (Desert Orchid) El Niño®

Chitalpa (Desert Orchid) chi-TAL-pa

Proven Winners El Niño®: Seeing is believing, and El Niño® desert orchid (×Chitalpa) is a shrub that must be seen – and smelled – to be believed! In summer, it blooms continuously, with spires of pink-purple flowers that look like orchids. They have a truly unique fragrance that’s a bit hard to describe, but most people we ask describe it as vanilla and ripe melon. Since it blooms in the summer, that sweet scent wafts on the warm breeze, perfuming the area and drawing you to it, making its unusual blooms all the better.

Zone 6

Full to Part Sun

Height: 10-15’/Spread: 8-10′

Summer

Size Available: 3 Gallon

Chitalpa (Desert Orchid) El Niño®

Description

Chitalpa (Desert Orchid) chi-TAL-pa

If you’ve never heard of Chitalpa before, you’re not alone! This is a new hybrid of two North American native trees: Chilopsis, also known as desert willow, and Catalpa, also known as cigar tree, Indian bean tree, or Catawba. These two species combine to create a heat tolerant, disease resistant shrub with the color and fragrance of the desert willow and the hardiness of the cigar tree. You already know we’re big fans of Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs around here, and this is one of the coolest and most original introductions we’ve ever seen from them.